The Line Drive 4/26

• The demo for Fight Night Round 4 will feature Ricky Hatton vs Manny Pacquiao when it releases in mid-late May. Check out gameplay footage featuring the two facing off here.

• As mentioned on Friday with the appearance of Larry Fitzgerald on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon there would be some Madden 10 gameplay on display. You can watch the interview which includes some highlights shown here. There is also bonus footage of Fallon playing the game backstage here.

• Backbreaker was an intriguing concept when the game was announced way back in 2007. Since then it has pretty much gone into hibernation. It may be starting to emerge now as Gamestop has added Backbreaker to their database. The price is posted as $49.99. There is a release date listed of 10/1 however this appears to just be a placeholder and likely only points towards a fall/winter release. Hopefully Backbreaker makes an appearance at E3.

• With all the discussion around the 360/PS3 Madden 10 video the one for the Wii got overlooked. You can watch that here. I’m under embargo until Wednesday but I will say that I like the direction they’ve gone with the Wii version this year.

• EA Sports Complex in Playstation Home is now available. Right now the Complex features the poker and racing mini-games with the golf one coming in the near future.

The Line Drive 4/11

• The cover athletes for Grand Slam Tennis have been revealed to be John McEnroe, Roger Federer, and Serena Williams. A couple new screenshots can be found in the gallery [click here]

• The Inside EA Blog has a video recap of the Madden 10 Community Event that took place yesterday [click here]

• ESPN has an extensive article about the lengths Tiger Woods 10 has gone in replicating the terrain of the golf courses and a great comparison screen [click here]

• ESPN also has an interview with Prince Fielder who was announced as the cover athlete for The BIGS 2 earlier this week [click here]

• Wii MotionPlus will be out in July which means it will miss the releases of Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. It’ll be interesting to see how well those games are received without it and then how perspectives change once switching over to M+.

• Amazon continues to list NCAA Football 10 at $49.99 for the 360 and PS3. From what I’ve been able to gather this is an error on Amazon’s part and not a price drop, however it is curious and warrants monitoring as it remains unchanged.

The Line Drive 2/22

• While it was known that NCAA Football 10 would include the procedural awareness that was discussed for Madden, the first NCAA focused offering has hit the Inside EA Blog here. The feature revealed is not an exciting one but to a small segment of the hardcore base. It is QB Auto-Pass which results in a quasi coach mode.

• As the NFL season has ended the Top 10 videos on EA Sports World for Madden will be taking on some various themes. This week it was Anquan Boldin on a new team. I of course quickly put him on the Seahawks and the highlight I submitted made the cut. You can watch it here (choose Madden Top 10 2/18).

• It was encouraged to see other media outlets such as Kotaku and 5WG picking up on the MLB 2K9 advertising story. This isn’t something that should just be brushed off as it could set a precedent if no one were to speak out against it.

• Last week Ike Diogu was traded to the Sacramento Kings but he was making future plans during All-Star Weekend. First Cuts has an article about how Diogu hopes to work in the video game business after his NBA career is over and has taken on a summer internship at EA Sports.

• Jon Robinson at ESPN has a couple interesting articles which includes how Kevin Durant played MLB 09 The Show so much over All-Star Weekend that he broke the PS3 and Reggie Bush talking about Madden.

• Madden 10 Designer Donny Moore made the statement that Pat White in Madden 10 is reminding him of Mike Vick in Madden 2004.  I don’t think you’re going to increase confidence in the title by comparing a rookie QB to one of the most ridiculously dominant video game characters this decade.

The Line Drive 2/15

• Gamespot continues some good MLB 2K9 coverage with user-requested screenshots and full team ratings.

• ESPN has an interview with NBA Live 10 producers. This is a pretty compelling interview for anyone interested in where the series is headed.

• The Playstation Blog recapped the recent MLB 09 The Show Community Preview. It turned out to be a really worthwhile experience and hopefully SCEA continues expanding their community interaction.

• Now just a week away from the Fight Night Round 4 Community Event. Make sure to drop anything you’re interested about here.

• Seems like most everyone was disappointed with the NBA All-Star Saturday. The dunk contest has become way to gimmicky but I was happy to see Nate Robinson win it. If Lebron follows through and does it next year, and they can get someone else like Kobe involved, maybe the magic can return.

The Line Drive 1/25

• Last week I contributed on a piece at 360sync.com on who appears to be the top candidates for the Madden 2010 cover on the defensive side of the ball. You can check that out here.

• With 3 on 3 NHL Arcade coming to XBL on February 4th (and presumably the next day for PSN) there have been a handful of hands-on previews. I’m hoping to be able play it and give my impressions and post some videos prior to release also. In the meantime check out the previews at Gamespot and IGN.

• While 2K hasn’t provided many details about the soon to release MLB Front Office Manager they did hold a media event at the end of last week. Unfortunately with that won’t come the details people are looking to hear about but instead more general themes about the game will now be more widespread. You can check out one of the write-ups from this event here.

• I previously posted the OS hands-on preview for The Show as well as the (somewhat frustrating) producer interview regarding online play. Emerging from that media event some other outlets have begun to post their previews of the game. You can check out Gamespy’s here. Don’t forget to leave anything you’re hoping to find out about the game for when I sit down for it at the end of the week.

The Line Drive 1/17

• The February edition of Game Informer includes a preview of Fight Night Round 4. A good recap of the preview can be found here.

• Another patch for NHL 09 is on the way and should be out sometime in February. It is intended to fix the attribute boosting along with making other improvements to gameplay.

• The achievements for 3 on 3 NHL Arcade can now be found here. The downloadable game is set to come out early next month.

• Some new gameplay footage has come out for UFC 2009 Undisputed. You can check out the one that features Rich Franklin here and Dan Henderson here. What do you think of how the game looks from these videos? Tough for me to get a good feel for it. Seems a little rigid and methodical but when the action is going quick it appears to flow better.

The Line Drive 1/9

• The announcement has been up since Wednesday night, but just a reminder the site will be moving to a new server late tonight and there could be temporary difficulties in accessing it. Make sure to follow along with my Twitter where I’ll be able to communicate throughout. UPDATE: The move has been made and things seem to have gone relatively smoothly. If you’re seeing this you made it, congrats!

• I’ve noticed that most people who comment on the articles are doing so without logging into Intense Debate which is the comment system that was installed in November. There are several advantages to signing up with Intense Debate so I encourage you to check it out especially if you are a regular contributor to the comments.

• Shawn Drotar has relaunched 5WGaming (formerly 5W-G). You’ll see me on occasion linking over there for some in-depth articles that primarily have to do with the video game industry but also involvement in the sports gaming community. There is also a guest writer program which is already up and running.

• The Skate 2 demo is out on the 360 and will be arriving on the PS3 next Thursday. Anyone have impressions?

• Another Q&A for 5 on 5 NHL Arcade. Most of the info has been covered in previous ones though it does narrow the release down to early February.

• Jon Robinson interviews MLB 09 The Show cover athlete Dustin Pedroia.

• Look for a new Padrecast to be up by the end of the weekend with discussion centered on the MLB 2K9 features.

The Line Drive 12/14

• As discussed previously the Arena Football League is in big trouble and it now looks like the 2009 season may be canceled. However they are now reconsidering the decision to scrap it. Regardless the AFL license that is available after EA Sports decided not to renew won’t be appealing to any other companies.

• Operation Sports is running their year end awards. You can vote for them here. Categories include sports game of the year, best title for each particular sport, and best company interaction.

• Don’t forget that the unveiling of Fight Night Round 4 will take place tonight on the Spike VGAs which begins at 9et/6pt. Will it deliver with something never before seen in a videogame? We’ll see. One thing that will be shown is “a virtual bout between two legends of the ring” which likely means Ali and Tyson.

• Just a reminder that the Pastapadre.com Home Club is up. If you are interested in joining search from within Home and request to join. I’ll then accept it. For whatever reason the ability for me to send invites out is broken.

• So I used that original next-gen Madden “target” CGI screenshot and its interesting to me that it featured Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb who are still together to this day. There are probably only a few cases where over four years ago a team had the same head coach and starting QB as they do now.

• A producer blog on EA Sports World mentions that the official title for Madden next year will be Madden NFL 10 rather than Madden NFL 2010. Personally I think that sounds lame and makes little sense. I’d much rather have 2010, 20-10, or even XXI representing the 21st year of the franchise. Vote in the poll for which name you would prefer.

The Line Drive 12/6

• An amusing article from ESPN’s Jon Robinson details the Chicago Bears and their NBA 2K9 gaming.

• The alternate jersey code is out for NHL 2K9: R6y34bsH52. No word on the NHL 09 code other than it should be out sometime this month.

• Joining Facebreaker and a future Punch-Out on the Wii will be Ready 2 Rumble Revolution. Like Punch-Out, Ready 2 Rumble is a name that is looked back on with good memories. While Facebreaker was unable to capture the magic of those two obviously developers see the potential market there on the Wii for arcade boxing. You can check out the trailer for R2R Revoution here.

• How about the trailer for the recently announced Nascar: Kart Racing? Well that can be watched here. Yeah, it is basically Mario Kart with corporate sponsors.

• With four games left the NFL Pickem is clearly going to come down to the wire. Eight people are within 6 games of the leader (R. McCarthy) and one bad week from any of them could take them out of the running. Now it is time to get ready for the College Bowl Pickem group. Create your entry and search for the group Pastapadre with the password qwest.

• Apparently Madden 2010 and Tiger Woods 2010 are already facing some phases of testing. And with gems like the girl who “discovered the computer never takes its turn” we can be sure it is in good hands.

The Line Drive

• As some of you may have already noticed I have installed a new comment system. This one seems to work well in both Firefox and IE and has replies show up in threaded form. It also allows registered users to give a “thumbs up”  or “thumbs down” to any particular comment. I’ll be looking to find a way to allow for the editing of comments in the near future.

• I’ve started back using Twitter so anyone that would like to follow along here is my address. I’ve also added the last two updates to the sidebar. I’ll be leaving messages on there pretty frequently from now on. In some cases they may relate to the site but in others it’ll just be whatever is on my mind at the time.

• Is there anyone who would like to help create a Pastapadre t-shirt? Shoot me a message through the contact form.

• While the problem with public sharing of roster files in NCAA Basketball 09 continues, the group of volunteers who worked up the rosters at Operation Sports has completed the file. For now those on the 360 would need to send a friends request to the gamertag OperationSports. Once accepted you will be able to download the file out of the locker. After getting the file make sure to remove the gamertag from your friends list. Not sure what the best procedure will be for those on the PS3 yet.

• What non-sports games are you playing right now? I’m about to get into Left 4 Dead and still have to get through Gears of War 2. I’m also looking forward to putting time into Scene It: Box Office Smash and Little Big Planet.